Warning: the following article contains spoilers for ‘The Last of Us’ episode six, ‘Kin’.
Episode six of HBO’s The Last of Us is finally out in the wild. After a somewhat icy reception, Ellie and Joel have finally arrived at Tommy’s settlement in Wyoming and have sat down for a nice warm meal. Ellie is high on carbs and is yelling at people, and HANG ON IS THAT DINA?
A face we weren’t expecting to see until at least the second season of The Last of Us may have just shown up in the form of (according to the show’s credits) ‘Staring Girl’ — played ever so briefly by Paolina van Kleef. While she isn’t named outright nor even seen again over the course of the episode, the resemblance between Staring Girl and Dina is way too close to ignore.
Needless to say, everyone is freaking right out – and rightfully so – this little glimpse was completely out of the blue. Or was it? With the beauty of hindsight, The Last of Us’s writing room had the freedom to come up with various hints and teases alluding to The Last of Us Part II through Joel and Ellie’s first visit to Jackson.
In any case, if Staring Girl isn’t Dina, a LOT of people are going to be disappointed:
While we’d love to get an early peek at ‘Dina’ and Ellie’s budding relationship, unfortunately (as fans of the game are acutely aware), we need to allow for matters relating to The Last of Us Part I to resolve themselves first before we can move on to the big mystery of ‘Staring Girl’.
Then again, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have been flipping expectations on their head on occasion over the course of the show, so perhaps we’ll see Paolina van Kleef’s ‘Staring Girl’ some other time before the season’s end.
HBO’s The Last of Us will be back with a new episode next Sunday, most likely sans Dina/Staring Girl.